Willard Motley was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 14 July 1909
and grew up in a racially mixed neighbourhood in south Chicago. At
the age of thirteen he began to write a children's column for the
Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper. After
graduating from Englewood High School in 1929 Motley began to
submit work to popular magazines, but it would be 1938 before he
published, primarily in small travel magazines.

In 1940 he began work on a novel, Knock on Any Door
(1947). The story of an Italian American boy's transformation from
altar boy to armed robber and murderer, Knock on Any Door
drew on Motley's life in the Chicago slums during the 1930s, his
experience on the Federal Writers' Project, and h…

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Citation:
Fleming, Robert E.. "Willard Motley".
The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3226, accessed 02 August 2015.]

Articles on Motley's works

3226Willard Motley1Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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